Mais où est donc Ornicar ?, orMais où est donc Carnior ? and alsoOrmais, où est donc Nicar ? is aFrench-languagemnemonic that aids in remembering the language'scoordinating conjunctions. The sentence translates as "Where, therefore, is Ornicar?", or "Where is Ornicar, then?", and is a phonetic juxtaposition of the wordsmais (but),ou (or),et (and),donc (therefore),or (however),ni (nor), andcar (for).
The phrase is often learned by French school children, and has influenced French culture, including having an asteroid named after it and inspiring the titles of numerous literary, musical and cinematic works.
| Mnemonic in English | but | where | is | therefore | Ornicar [name] | ? | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mnemonic | mais† | où | est | donc† | Ornicar | ? | ||
| Conjunctions | ou | et | or | ni | car | |||
| Conjunctions in English | but | or | and | therefore, so | yet | nor | for | |
| † Same word in mnemonic and conjunctions | [1][2] | |||||||
Of the seven coordinating conjunctions included in the mnemonic, four (et,ou,ni andmais) are universally recognised as such in French.Car is also a coordinating conjunction meaning "because".[3]Or is sometimes considered a coordinating conjunction, but can also be treated as anadverb.[4] The grammatical reference workLe Bon Usage classes these six as conjunctions, butdonc as an adverb—it also notes that other constructions such aspuis,aussi andseulement have some characteristics of coordinating conjunctions.[5]
Although two of the words in the sentence,mais anddonc, have both the same spelling and meaning as the conjunctions they represent, it relies onhomophones of other French words. The French relative pronounoù (where) is used because it sounds the same asou (or);[6] the presence of agrave accent differentiates theirorthography.[7]Est, a third-person present tense form of the verbêtre (to be), is used instead of the conjunctionet (and); again, in this context, they are pronounced similarly.[8]Ornicar—which is intended to sound like a Frenchgiven name, even though it is not one[9] —is used as aproper noun to represent the three conjunctionsor (now/yet),ni (nor) andcar (for).
The phrase is taught to and used by French children to help them remember their language's most common coordinating conjunctions.[1][10] InQuebec, the versionMais où est donc Carnior ? (with the wordsor andcar swapped) is used.[11] In English, the similar mnemonicacronym "FANBOYS" may be used to remember its coordinating conjunctions.[12]
Thejournal of theFreudian field published by theUniversity of Paris's Department of Psychoanalysis was calledOrnicar ?.[13] The 1979 French filmMais où et donc Ornicar uses this mnemonic as its title.[14] The French astronomerAlain Maury named anasteroid,17777 Ornicar, after the phrase following its discovery by theOCA-DLR Asteroid Survey atCaussols on 24 March 1998.[10][15] According to theJPL Small-Body Database, the naming "honor[ed] French teachers around the world" and "provides one answer to [the] question" of where to find Ornicar.[15] In 2002,Gérald Stehr andWilli Glasauer published a children's book titledMais où est donc Ornicar? (English version as "But, where, therefore, is Oscar, the Platypus?")—it features Ornicar as aplatypus (ornithorynque in French).[16] In 2005, the Quebec rock groupLes Dales Hawerchuk released a song with the title "Mais où est donc Carnior ?".[17] The mnemonic became the subject of a satirical "Chuck Norris fact" in France: "Chuck Norris knows where Ornicar is".[18]
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